Help coming for struggling American Legion posts

File photo. People gather during the Post Everlasting ceremony at the 2012 Wood County Fair to honor veterans in the local area who have recently passed. (Photo: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune)

Mounting costs and declining membership have forced a Fostoria American Legion veterans post to put its club up for auction.
"We need to get rid of our biggest liability, which is the building," said Jim Nusser, commander of the Earl Foust Post No. 73. "It just came to the point where the building is eating us up."
The building, constructed in 1996 on Zeller Road, will go up for auction July 9.
"At the time when the club was built, it was a great idea," Nusser said.
But now, he said, it's just too big to support dwindling membership.
In its heyday, the post was 800 members strong. As of this month, that number was 285.
"We could keep it up if participation was greater, but I don't look for that to happen," Nusser said.